I Stand Corrected!

Eleven Plus (11+) in Trafford

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Catseye
Posts: 1824
Joined: Wed Oct 29, 2014 6:03 pm
Location: Cheshire

I Stand Corrected!

Post by Catseye »

I was never a fan of CEM mainly because of its over resilience of vocab synonyms and antonyms a highly rehearsed skill for 10 yrs.

But there has been a revolution in Altrincham for AGGS, the local prep schools have had a hammering !!

I am now an avid supporter of CEM with the zeal of a recent convert.

But I still disagree with the whole concept of selective education at 10, I could be persuaded for selection at 13 yrs.
Glasnost
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Mar 07, 2016 9:05 am

Re: I Stand Corrected!

Post by Glasnost »

I have been lurking on the forum for a few months now, awaiting an appropriate time to make my maiden post. Thank you Catseye for providing me with that opportunity.

In general, I have found the forum to be both well-informed and supportive for parents who are going through the 11+ journey. However, occasionally, the information posted can be questionable and anecdotal, rather than based on substantiated facts, and this can lead to the development of myths.

Based on the (non-selective) prep school for which I have substantiated facts, the pass-rate for girls who sat the joint Sale/AGGS CEM-style entrance exam was circa two-thirds (the vast majority of which passed for both Sale and AGGS). I don't have any other results to benchmark this against, whether prior-year results for the same school or same-year results for other schools, but does that really represent a "hammering" or a "revolution" for Altrincham? Or perhaps the prep school for which I have accurate information significantly out-performed the others?

Parents have many reasons for opting to send their children to an independent school, whether for primary education, secondary education or both. Rightly or wrongly, some may view a prep school as improving their DC's odds for securing a coveted place at one of the local state grammars. However, for others, it may be that they view the smaller class sizes in the prep sector as a means of helping their DC achieve his/her true level, whatever that might be. In making educational decisions for their DC, we parents are all trying to do what is best for our DC based on a wide range of personal circumstances and therefore I'd hope that we would try to respect and understand the decisions made by others. Vitriolic (and possibly ill-informed?) posts are out of step with that.
TIDDLYMUM
Posts: 881
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 10:19 pm

Re: I Stand Corrected!

Post by TIDDLYMUM »

Whilst I have no vested interest in prep schools/AGGS places myself, I find crowing over any child not getting a school place rather distasteful.
This forum exists to support all parents, regardless of the choices they make for their children.
bookaddict
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2015 2:08 pm

Re: I Stand Corrected!

Post by bookaddict »

TIDDLYMUM wrote:This forum exists to support all parents, regardless of the choices they make for their children.
Couldn't agree more. This forum is really handy for all parents going through the entrance exams, which is a very trying time. I've logged on again recently for Offers Day and now hoping to give advice to others with DC in Yr5.

For us living in Trafford the exams do give parents an opportunity for extra choice when it comes down to picking a secondary school and however the children get to those schools shouldn't really matter - the exams in Yr11 will all be the same anyway.
enigma
Posts: 73
Joined: Sat Oct 18, 2014 4:01 pm

Re: I Stand Corrected!

Post by enigma »

I'm not and will never be a fan of CEM. It is too fast for pupils and they're bombarded with truckloads of vocabularies (i.e. synonyms, antonyms, etc.). In my opinion, this method is very favourable for pupil who is heavily tutored, why? Vocabularies can be learned, memorized and with a good tutor, you can fill your brain with the right words and as many words as you can take. With a good tutor, you can also learn shortcut techniques and familiarize test questions which give you the speed you need in tackling CEM type of tests. It isn't really putting the pupils into a quite level playing field.
Image "A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human into believing that it was human."
- Alan Turing
Catseye
Posts: 1824
Joined: Wed Oct 29, 2014 6:03 pm
Location: Cheshire

Re: I Stand Corrected!

Post by Catseye »

TIDDLYMUM wrote:I find crowing over any child not getting a school place rather distasteful.
I am not "crowing" Universities use contextual data why should State Schools not also do the same?
Altymumof2
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2013 9:54 pm

Re: I Stand Corrected!

Post by Altymumof2 »

Glasnost wrote:I have been lurking on the forum for a few months now, awaiting an appropriate time to make my maiden post. Thank you Catseye for providing me with that opportunity.

In general, I have found the forum to be both well-informed and supportive for parents who are going through the 11+ journey. However, occasionally, the information posted can be questionable and anecdotal, rather than based on substantiated facts, and this can lead to the development of myths.

Based on the (non-selective) prep school for which I have substantiated facts, the pass-rate for girls who sat the joint Sale/AGGS CEM-style entrance exam was circa two-thirds (the vast majority of which passed for both Sale and AGGS). I don't have any other results to benchmark this against, whether prior-year results for the same school or same-year results for other schools, but does that really represent a "hammering" or a "revolution" for Altrincham? Or perhaps the prep school for which I have accurate information significantly out-performed the others?

Parents have many reasons for opting to send their children to an independent school, whether for primary education, secondary education or both. Rightly or wrongly, some may view a prep school as improving their DC's odds for securing a coveted place at one of the local state grammars. However, for others, it may be that they view the smaller class sizes in the prep sector as a means of helping their DC achieve his/her true level, whatever that might be. In making educational decisions for their DC, we parents are all trying to do what is best for our DC based on a wide range of personal circumstances and therefore I'd hope that we would try to respect and understand the decisions made by others. Vitriolic (and possibly ill-informed?) posts are out of step with that.
Well said and welcome!
TIDDLYMUM
Posts: 881
Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 10:19 pm

Re: I Stand Corrected!

Post by TIDDLYMUM »

I can't really be bothered to reply. I only stay on this forum to offer advice based on my own experience, to help and support parents who aren't necessarily 'in the know' about the Trafford selective process. I've no more kids going through the exams and no axe to grind.

If you read my posts , this will bear out.

Just a shame not everyone can say the same.

End of. :D
Petitpois
Posts: 1440
Joined: Thu Jul 02, 2015 7:44 am

Re: I Stand Corrected!

Post by Petitpois »

Speed is a critical element of CEM and we forgot to tutor that, this year.

Vocabulary is only massively important where it is weighted as such. CEM King Edwards is 50% VR and Maths 25% NVR 25%, so shock horror, bok worms and speed merchants will do much better on average.

In other areas the three areas are given equal weighting 33%. Thus giving a strong mathematician the chance to shine, or perhaps someone is naturally good at NVR, which is very often overlooked by all.

Birmingham exams are amongst the most competitive, because the gap between state comps and grammars is very very large across the conurbation and with nearly 6000 sitting one exam, you have to work hard and smart to get ahead of the crowd.

I am surprised at the Trafford board

PP
Tolstoy
Posts: 2755
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:25 pm

Re: I Stand Corrected!

Post by Tolstoy »

',
enigma wrote:I'm not and will never be a fan of CEM. It is too fast for pupils and they're bombarded with truckloads of vocabularies (i.e. synonyms, antonyms, etc.). In my opinion, this method is very favourable for pupil who is heavily tutored, why? Vocabularies can be learned, memorized and with a good tutor, you can fill your brain with the right words and as many words as you can take. With a good tutor, you can also learn shortcut techniques and familiarize test questions which give you the speed you need in tackling CEM type of tests. It isn't really putting the pupils into a quite level playing field.
Ditto. I have experience of CEM and GL VR. As pp also mentions there are areas where the VR section of the CEM are given 50% which heavily favours the tutored. I have also noticed CEM penalises those with dyslexia.
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